Whicker: Hall of Credibility?

Jan. 5, 2014

Updated 7:20 p.m.

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Suspicions that Mike Piazza used performance enhancing drugs during his career might keep the former Dodgers catcher from getting the 75 percent of the vote that he needs to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame. AL BELLO, GETTY IMAGES

Suspicions that Mike Piazza used performance enhancing drugs during his career might keep the former Dodgers catcher from getting the 75 percent of the vote that he needs to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame. AL BELLO, GETTY IMAGES

The National Baseball Hall of Fame might as well become the gift shop at Cracker Barrel if Mike Piazza doesn’t get elected on Wednesday.

Not that it isn’t headed there already.

“Excuse me, can I find the alltime leader in hits?”

“Sorry, we’re out of stock.”

“How about the alltime leader in home runs?”

“Hmmm ... I don’t think we carry that.”

“All right, do you have the labor leader who pushed to eliminate the reserve clause and eventually transformed baseball’s economic structure?”

“You know, I’ll have to check. Is that in our catalog?”

Sigh.

“OK, one last thing. I can’t seem to find the alltime leader in home runs by a catcher.”

“Let me ask Margie, right after she helps that fellow find a Whoopee cushion.”

This is not the Hall of Fame’s fault, mind you. It is not minimizing itself. It is at the mercy of the Baseball Writers Association of America, which casts the votes.

Some BBWAA members have become amateur pharmacologists, some just curmudgeonly gatekeepers. Granted, Commissioner Bud Selig has not allowed them to judge Pete Rose, but the fact that Piazza could lure only 57.8 percent of the votes in 2013 suggests that maybe Vladimir Putin should be running these elections.

Exit polling, gleaned by tweets and columns written by the voters, indicates Piazza has a chance to get the magic 75 percent. But he is swimming upstream against rookies Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas.

The truth is that Piazza should have been automatic.

Piazza hit 427 home runs, 396 as a catcher, 45 more than any other catcher hit.

Check out the active leader in catchers’ homers. He is Brian McCann of the Yankees. With 176.

Piazza spent most of his career in pitchers’ parks. In 1997 he hit 40 home runs for the Dodgers, and in 1999 he hit 40 for the Mets.

No catcher has hit even 30 since Atlanta’s Javy Lopez hit 43 in 2003. Last year the MLB leader for catchers’ home runs was Baltimore’s Matt Wieters, with 22.

“Hitting behind him, I saw some amazing things,” said Eric Karros, the ex-Dodger and current Fox baseball analyst.

“One day he hit one over that short right-field fence at Dodger Stadium, off Rene Arocha of the Cardinals. Tommy Lasorda was telling me that’s what I should do with the outside pitch. Then I saw the tape. The pitch might have been six inches off the plate – on the inside. His hands were just that strong.”

But Piazza was no mere brute. His career batting average was .308. and his career on-base percentage was .377. Four times his OPS was over 1.000, and twice he had the best OPS when measured against the MLB average.

He never struck out 100 times in any season. He drove in 100 runs six times and, in 1997, had 200 hits, which no catcher has done since.

“His work ethic was unparalleled,” Karros said. “Every Dec. 31 at midnight, he’d ring in the New Year by hitting in his cage at home.”

Piazza couldn’t throw out base stealers, but he was savvy enough to catch several Dodgers pitching staffs that won ERA titles, and caught in the 2000 World Series for the Mets.

And he steadfastly insisted he was a catcher and not anything else. Even at 37, he caught 99 games for the Padres. Meanwhile, the Twins’ Joe Mauer will be a 31-year-old first baseman this year.

“He wasn’t a catcher before,” Karros said. “He learned the position in the Dominican (Republic), at the Dodgers’ academy. Nobody does that. I really think he should have won the Gold Glove in ’93.”

But the suspicion is that Piazza is the victim of nothing more than suspicion.

He never has tested positive for performance-enhancers, but some voters choose to doubt that Piazza was that good without additives.

Funny, how certain disbeliefs can be suspended.

We all said the one record that would absolutely, positively stand forever was Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak.

Cal Ripken broke it and sailed into Cooperstown on the first ballot with no problem.

So it’s becoming the Hall of People We Like.

In his autobiography, Piazza admitted to using some substances before they were banned, including amphetamines, but said he turned down a chance to use HGH.

“Only one person knows,” Karros said. “I played with the guy and, to me, he’s a slam-dunk Hall of Famer. But, in some peoples’ minds, everyone from that time period is tainted.”

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